A Conference You Don’t Want to Miss

January 5, 2012

I want to invite you to the Ecclesia Network National Gathering taking place this year, in Washington D.C. from March 5th – March 7th. It’s a great place for missional church leaders to meaningful connect and learn some things as well.

Topic
The church is called to be nothing less than an alternative society centered on Christ, offering herself to the world as a sign, instrument and foretaste of God’s coming kingdom. Reconciling the broken pieces of our sin-scarred world is one of the major initiatives in which God invites us to participate. So our focus this year is on how our churches can function as centers of reconciliation, where we learn through the power of the Spirit to live as one reconciled family of God across racial, economic and generational lines.
This year we are joined by:Dr. John Perkins, who is well-known for his work in the area of Christian community development and providing a vision for the church to be at the center of the work of justice in their local context. He is the President of the John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation and one of the founders of the Christian Community Development Association.

We are also delighted to have Dr. Ivy Beckwith join us this year. Ivy is one of the foremost experts in the area of children’s ministry in the country. She has a long tenure in both working in local church contexts and training those who work with children. She is the author of a number of books and curriculum including Formational Children’s Ministry and Post-Modern Children’s Ministry.

We will also be joined by Dr. AJ Swoboda, pastor of Theophilus Church in Portland, OR. AJ also serves as a professor of theology, biblical studies, and church history at a number of schools on the west coast. He recently completed his doctoral work on the never-ending relationship with the Spirit and Ecology and this Fall his first book is due out, entitled Spirit Over Chaos: Finding God in the Mess of Christianity.